Beaverton School District

Beaverton is the third-largest school district in Oregon and serves more than 40,700 students and families. In 2014, the community passed a $680 million bond that allocated a significant amount of money to modernize the district’s technology systems, including telephony. The new system needed to integrate with existing collaboration systems, improve workflow and save time, while addressing student safety.

The previous Nortel phone system had served the district for nearly two decades and was failing at a very high rate. Parts were no longer available. To keep the system running, Beaverton was relying on finding retired Nortel equipment at other school districts. The need for a modern UC system was urgent.

From the beginning, the committee was interested in more than telephone features. “Reliability and redundancy were very important to us. We also wanted an intuitive interface, ease of use, and how this system would function in a collaborative environment. For example, how teacher voicemails could be accessed through other communication systems and how a phone system could impact and support student safety,” explains Steven Langford, chief information officer for the Beaverton School District.

Goals

Deploy a modern telephony solution that could be part of a comprehensive system

Provide better collaboration, safety and communications across 51 schools and six ancillary sites

Results

Comprehensive safety features that integrate with other advanced emergency response applications